Stolen palms

[Ciczi in Sweden]

Hi

Some idiot stole two of my potted palmtrees yesterday... AAHHHHHH

I'm mad as hell.... I called the police and reported it as soon as I discovered it but the closed the case like five minutes after I reported it.

Still mad as hell. :rant:

The stolen palms where Phoenix canariensis and a Chamaerops humilis.

//Ciczi

Edited June 10, 2013 by Ciczi in Sweden

[Kim]

Oh no! Oh, that's terrible, Ciczi, I am so sorry! I know how much those palms mean to you, and how hard you work to keep them healthy.

I always wonder what kind of scummy people steal plants? It is so disgustingly selfish. And it adds insult to injury when the authorities don't take plant theft seriously.

[Jeff Searle]

I'm sorry to hear about the theft. It sure makes for crappy feeling. if you don't live in a too large of a city or town, I would sure keep my eyes open as I drive around town. Also tell any friends or family to keep an eye out as well. Thieves are usually pretty stupid and do stupid things like bring them back and put them in their own front yard. And there's no cure for stupidity. Good luck.

[doranakandawatta]

Ciczi,

Very sorry for you, I didn't think this could happen in Sweden!
Here in Switzerland someone had stollen my female siamese cat , I am still sad and upset!

Enjoy Palmtalk threads and pics!

Best regards

Philippe

[Ciczi in Sweden]

I actually bought a chain to lock the last one down with. Even though it is in a huge pot that weighs loads I chained it to a bench that also weighs loads. This all is chained to a big metalconstuction that is used for hanging out your carpets.

Not so mad anymore, just disappointed and disgusted that some idiots found their way into my garden. It violates your personal sphere and you feel violated and not safe in your own home anymore.

//Ciczi

[bgl]

Ciczi,

So very sorry to hear that. I'm amazed that someone would steal very heavy pot. And you're right, the feeling of being violated is worse than the actual loss of the palm. I hope you can find a couple of nice replacements though!

Lycka till och ha en skön sommar!

Bo-Göran

[smotrs]

Wow, that sucks. That's definitely a crappy feeling. Definitely start keeping an eye out as someone above mentioned. Never know if it will turn up in some ones else's yard.

Edited June 10, 2013 by smotrs

[Hammer]

Very disappointing. Be on the look out. They will turn up...then you press charges to the fullest.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

I actually bought a chain to lock the last one down with. Even though it is in a huge pot that weighs loads I chained it to a bench that also weighs loads. This all is chained to a big metalconstuction that is used for hanging out your carpets.

Not so mad anymore, just disappointed and disgusted that some idiots found their way into my garden. It violates your personal sphere and you feel violated and not safe in your own home anymore.

//Ciczi

Someone actually went into your garden to steal plants? I thought Sweden is super safe. I recommend some video cameras: buy some new palms as "bait" where they are very visible and hide your camera. Because they'll be back for more.

[Ciczi in Sweden]

Pressing charges is a very american thing actually. Not much I can do but I suppose it falls under concealment of stolen property. Its a crime in swedish law that never ends (the swedish word is "perdurerande") . If I find them I can only call the police. But they won't be of much help. So I will probably never see them again.

Axel I'm not so sure they will be back for more. I also found a needle used for injecting drugs into your blood. There were blood remnants on it but the police just said throw it away, we don't want it.

We have had some issues with one neighbour addicted to drugs but he is trying to clean up. Some of his old "friends" does come "visit" and when he does not open they destroy something...

I think it's some of his "friends" who has done this...

But I chained the last one just in case they actually come back...

//Ciczi

[Ciczi in Sweden]

My husband actually thought of baiting it with that kind of electric fencing that is used for cattle. But it will probably just hurt the kids in the house ( my son and a neighbours lovely girl 3 years)

[Hammer]

Why have police or laws if they won't do anything?! I'm mad for you.

[kahili]

Wow, I am so sorry to hear that Ciczi. Did they cut the chain? I am even more sorry that you had to go to the trouble of even having to lock down a plant in your yard! What a strange world that we live in that plants have to be locked down in one's yard....I really don't get people sometimes

[Cedric]

This is very shocking I know! That yucky feeling vanishes luckily quite soon that you've had your personal space invaded, its almost like a bad smell in the air that clears up. If the palms are permanetly out there I might try putting weights rocks or iron in the bottom of any new ones as drainage. If the whole thing is too heavy they might leave it as its to messy in a hurry to pull the palm from the pot and find another one.

People were digging up baby palms and mature tree ferns from my property in South Africa at night. I would only find out a few days later if I went that way for any reason. It leaves a very bitter taste to see such destruction. The police were very good though and hung around after dark a few times on some of the entrance roads and bust a gang with a pick up truck spades and tree ferns. Bust!

I didn't press charges, it's not much done there either, geen sin. The police though took the truck as it was a stolen vehicle and a fire arm arresting the driver for that instead.

[Ciczi in Sweden]

Wow, I am so sorry to hear that Ciczi. Did they cut the chain? I am even more sorry that you had to go to the trouble of even having to lock down a plant in your yard! What a strange world that we live in that plants have to be locked down in one's yard....I really don't get people sometimes

No, I had three bigger pots with palms in them and they stole the two smaller ones and left the big. Its the big one that has been looked down with a chain. Now it is morning and it is still there.

//Ciczi

[_Keith]

Choot em' Jacob, choot em'

[Phoenikakias]

Ciczi I am very sorry for that. But I am not surprised at all, because this is the natural consequence of older basic political choices. When you sow winds you will harvest in future storms...

[Walter John]

Bad luck Ciczi, you know what this means, you have to find replacements. That'll be fun to do .

[Tropicgardener]

Choot em' Jacob, choot em'

Keith, I don't think that it was a gator that stole them...............

[palmislandRandy]

It's bad Karma for palm thieves Ciczi.

[Peter G]

I actually bought a chain to lock the last one down with. Even though it is in a huge pot that weighs loads I chained it to a bench that also weighs loads. This all is chained to a big metalconstuction that is used for hanging out your carpets.

Not so mad anymore, just disappointed and disgusted that some idiots found their way into my garden. It violates your personal sphere and you feel violated and not safe in your own home anymore.

//Ciczi

Someone actually went into your garden to steal plants? I thought Sweden is super safe. I recommend some video cameras: buy some new palms as "bait" where they are very visible and hide your camera. Because they'll be back for more.

Good call Axel, I installed 8 security cameras around my house, I can access these on the Internet from anywhere in the world, all movement gets recorded on the hard drive and stays there for 6 months.

There's nothing worse than palm damage or theft!

[Ciczi in Sweden]

It's bad Karma for palm thieves Ciczi.

Yeah and I hope they stung them selves really bad on the thorns.

Well I don t know about replacements yet. I will try to keep these I have and I will probably replace them after we have moved. There I will have loads bigger areas to have palmtrees.

//Ciczi

[yachtingone]

Why have police or laws if they won't do anything?! I'm mad for you.

The police are of no help here too!!!

Ciczi I too have had plants stolen. The law is clear that plants have no ID numbers on them so the police have nothing to work with once the thieves get the plants off your property.

I feel your pain for the loss of your plants!

Randy

[doranakandawatta]

Ciczi,

It's sad to have palms stolen by idiots as you say, but it's nice to see the worldwide friendship (camaraderie) you can feel through this thread;

Do you know any other swedish people having such a robbery problem and receiving sympathy from all over the world?

This is Palmtalk kindness!

Philippe

[Ciczi in Sweden]

Well Philippe no I dont and I feel your support

but it still sucks...

//Ciczi

[Mark Heath]

Ciczi,

I am sorry to hear about this, this sucks! Here in Florida the cops are not much help either!

I believe the same as you, it was the drug addicts next door and i would report to the cops that they are selling illegal drugs there and try and get some revenge seeing that they are partly to blame or fully to blame. Maybe it was some of their friends like you had spoke about but that circles back to your crappy neighbors!

Drug addicts do anything like stealing to support their habit because they can't/wont hold a full time job. Lock them all up!

Sorry for your loss!

Mark

[smotrs]

Ciczi,

I am sorry to hear about this, this sucks! Here in Florida the cops are not much help either!

I believe the same as you, it was the drug addicts next door and i would report to the cops that they are selling illegal drugs there and try and get some revenge seeing that they are partly to blame or fully to blame. Maybe it was some of their friends like you had spoke about but that circles back to your crappy neighbors!

Drug addicts do anything like stealing to support their habit because they can't/wont hold a full time job. Lock them all up!

Sorry for your loss!

Mark

If I understand correctly, she thinks it was the neighbors friends, not the neighbor them self. Apparently, the neighbor cleaned up, but their addicted friends come around and when the neighbor doesn't answer the door, they get butt hurt. As least that's the way I read it.

[Ciczi in Sweden]

Ciczi,

I am sorry to hear about this, this sucks! Here in Florida the cops are not much help either!

I believe the same as you, it was the drug addicts next door and i would report to the cops that they are selling illegal drugs there and try and get some revenge seeing that they are partly to blame or fully to blame. Maybe it was some of their friends like you had spoke about but that circles back to your crappy neighbors!

Drug addicts do anything like stealing to support their habit because they can't/wont hold a full time job. Lock them all up!

Sorry for your loss!

Mark

If I understand correctly, she thinks it was the neighbors friends, not the neighbor them self. Apparently, the neighbor cleaned up, but their addicted friends come around and when the neighbor doesn't answer the door, they get butt hurt. As least that's the way I read it.

Smotrs is absolutely right. It was probably a "friend" from my neighbours old life that stole the palms...

//Ciczi

[doranakandawatta]

Ciczi,

In order to give a more positive tuning on this thread, can you post a photo of your garden and the survivor?

Poor swedish drug addicts of your neighbors are not so "Palmy" after 4 days!

[bgl]

Hopefully Ciczi (and Kim) won't mind, but here are two photos from a very pleasant afternoon visit to Ciczi's garden in Trelleborg. This was in late May 2012, just over a year ago, when Kim and I paid a visit to Ciczi and her family. I wish I had better photos of her garden, which was very green and very lush on our visit.

[Brian Bruning]

I have plants stolen in pots, out of the ground and like that. Some guy stole my cement Buddha and granite Jizo (Buddhist saint) and likely sold them in a flea market. I suspect it is the guy that drives around looking for recyclable things at the curb. The local Japanese told me this was "bachi" - bad luck on top of bad karma. To them it is unthinkable to steal a Buddha, very bad karma. The Buddha was on top of a large plinth. The replacement is identicle but not 30 years old, faded and is now glued down with cement epoxy. People must come at night to dig plants out of my garden. I have quite a collection "Brian's Jungle" they call it on a large corner lot. I guess they figure I won't miss it but I know all my plants as if they are friends. I grew most of them from cuttings, seeds or seedlings. I'm not rich and can't afford large plants of the rare types I most enjoy. I have a climate similar to the near cloud forest of 3-5 000 masl but with occasional highs of 40C and lows to -3C. I can grow most all things but peonies and coconuts.

A friend lost a 2 mtr Lauralus nobilis standard that he raised for 20 years from a cutting when he was moving. I just found a 1.25mtr replacement for him for $25. He's done me a few favours and he lamented the loss so much. He had to move from San Francisco to Las Vegas and they took it off the kerb (curb here) when he was moving.

This stuff happens. These plant thieves are not drug addicts they are just cheap and lazy and the plants will likely die from lack of care anyway. How thoughtless but these are the type of people that don't think. I think it would hurt their brains.

[Mark Heath]

Ciczi,

I am sorry to hear about this, this sucks! Here in Florida the cops are not much help either!

I believe the same as you, it was the drug addicts next door and i would report to the cops that they are selling illegal drugs there and try and get some revenge seeing that they are partly to blame or fully to blame. Maybe it was some of their friends like you had spoke about but that circles back to your crappy neighbors!

Drug addicts do anything like stealing to support their habit because they can't/wont hold a full time job. Lock them all up!

Sorry for your loss!

Mark

If I understand correctly, she thinks it was the neighbors friends, not the neighbor them self. Apparently, the neighbor cleaned up, but their addicted friends come around and when the neighbor doesn't answer the door, they get butt hurt. As least that's the way I read it.

Smotrs is absolutely right. It was probably a "friend" from my neighbours old life that stole the palms...

//Ciczi

Gotcha. Too bad nothing can be done! Is good to see that you still have other palms!

[Ciczi in Sweden]

In bgls post there's two pics, on the left one you can see the survivor, my big Phoenix roebelenii. And bgl it sure was a nice visit! I will go out tomorrow and try to take some pics.

//Ciczi

[Kris]

Dear Ciczi,

Sorry to hear about the theft.I would recommend CCTV camera in your garden.And would suggest till you nail the thief.there is no point collecting exotic plants or palms.And the thief knows your house & the garden well,So he could attempt once again.So cameras are a must !

I was of the belief that theft is a offense very common to 3rd world countries but hearing about your palms theft iam really surprised.

Watch out & take care,

kris.

[avanza]

Sorry to hear this Ciczi.

It very common case in my country.

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Sorry to hear about this - Hope you get some great replacements . Law enforcement don't seem to take plant theft seriously !